by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Another painting class rolling in. This time it's Erfurt, right in the middle of Germany in the first days of August. If you are intrested in taking part, please follow this link for all the further informations: LINK!

by Roman aka jar

I can't figure out what kind of colors this model is painted with, heres a link to the pic, hope you can help me: klick!

My answer:

I would mostly work with Codex Grey, Snot Green and Hawk Tourquise. I feel these colours everywhere in the skin and plates. Surely they are mixed to a basic colour tone from which you might start.

After you have mixed it i would go into the lights with something like bleached bone. At the claws there seems to be a bit of Regal Blue in the shadows, maybe a drop of black in it for the deepest shadows (a lot on the facial area). At the upper plates i guess most of your work will do that greyish green basic colour you've created with the light addition. A bit of red, teracotta seems to be in there too. Mix it in or do a soft glaze afterwards if you want to achieve this look.

Back to basic colour:
I guess the skin could be started from the same colour mix but with much more white in the basic tone to make it brighter.

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Once i was standing in front of my cabinet and had this on my mind:
Everytime i put some miniatures there, they're soon be gone because i am trying to make a living from them - thanks to everyone who supports my passion in any form.

Selling miniatures.
It doesn't make me sad as i have learned to manage this with my heart.
I simply enjoy the miniatures while working with them, doing my version of the model with the paintjob.
I never thought i would be sad again about a miniature leaving my cabinet.
Suddenly i was sad by the last 2 pieces i sold: Butterfly and Soul Guardian, they are now on the way to their new owner in Spain. I am glad that these two pieces might show up on some miniature events after Victor takes them with him. Thanks for this too.
I know they will be in good hands and i am very thankful of this thought and also very thankful with their new owner. Sometimes i feel this little ichy pain inside my chest that i still can love my own creations... damn, haha!

I am really happy that i have started some miniature exchanges and already did some. These will be the miniatures that never leave my cabinet and it is my honour to have them. Thanks so far to:

Scott RadomFabrizio (Shiraga)Andrea Terzolo (MXP)

So this is simple a view in my actual soul, maybe the reason because i am a bit more quiet these last days.

by Roman aka jar

Somehow I don't find the muse to do a lot of typing lately, after the Article section swallows a lot of my energy in keeping it up to date. Big thanks to Andrea, Alba, Dustin and Marc for their translation help. Looking forward to make this rise. The announced tutorials are not completly written yet but i have finished something else:

2 Forgeworld Grotz for the use on the gaming table, 28 mm

Hero, Helldorado, 28 mm

This is how all of them look in my cabinet:

I hope you like them! So far out of the jungle...
Keep on happy painting!Best RegardsRoman

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Another sunny day passes and i am lazy like hell when it comes to typing letters into the jungle. Maybe some of you might think, yippie... finally i'll find some time to read everything, but i got a little lazy preview do bump into da jungle.

The Tutorial about Making 2K Water, where i have failed epic style will soon get an addition on how it is done right - here is a preview:

A tutorial on how i did build the base...

... for this Helldorado 28 mm WIP hero guy:

I hope these kind of previews don't bore you to death... less blabla, more photos soon.

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Howwabbaabaa!

This article is about a describtion on how to have a go on eyes at miniatures. Sure there are different ways of doing so, i simply show you mine in two different ways to reach the goal. First one at an 28 mm Miniature and the second at a 33 mm bust by Wonderlands Project.

I. The theory of the eyeAlways take a good look at nature, it can tell you so much about mostly everything you want to know when it comes to a question like "Hey, how can i paint this specific part on a miniature?" - go use google or often it hels looking in the mirror... Ok, this had to be said :)

The most important place on a miniature is very often its face. The face is the reason for its character, the colours you've chosen and for sure the view of the eyes - everything plays together. I seperate the eyes, when painting them at miniatures in 3 different areas: the white, the iris and the pupil. Here comes a describtion sketch that shows you thes same words in german:

The following examples will show you this theory in form of an human eye, you can see a point of light reflex in mostly every eye that is hit by light from somewhere:

When taking a closer look at the white area while the person is strongly looking to one side in the extreme you may recognize some more red in the other corner of the eyeball (oh yes those are my eyes, ugly, haha):

For further, more detailed theory about the eye i would propose this article and those great photos over there too.

II. Practical exercises on a 28 mm miniature facePainting eyes on miniatures is definatly something horrible and you have to choose yourself how far you train yourself with that, you might go mad at it. For sure it is something that can make your models even better, but the eyes of a miniature are not the best spot on a miniature to train your skills. It is a nice addition to a display miniature or a bust to have great eyes but i won't propose to to highly detailed eyes when painting 200 imperial soldier boys. For everything shown here you might need practice and you got to give it more tries than only one. I am often really bad when it comes to place eyes, you know that evil look that can happen, haha - rewind and do it again. It is a matter of patience first...

Easy version:A way that i mostly use for gaming miniature, simple and effective:

- Painting the area of the eyes black or very dark- Painting this area with white or very bright afterwards, taking care to leave a thin black line left- Setting the pupil with black or very dark

For example:

Advanced version:You can give the Iris some colour and bring in a tiny point of a light reflex. Please don't take this as a must have, sometimes it is even better to leave it without. It is always like you want to and if it fits to the miniature. Same procedure like in the easy version:

- Painting the area of the eyes black or very dark- Painting this area with white or very bright afterwards, taking care to leave a thin black line left

- Setting the Iris colour - Setting the pupil with black or very dark- Setting a reflexation point with pure white

For example:

Some more examples show how different eyes can look with the use of this technique:

How to do the Iris:I've learned to use a toothpick as it is easier to handle than a brush. I check the coloured tip of the toothpick on my fingers to see how big the dots will be, like in this article. If the dots are too big, use another toothpick or try to sharpen it with your scalpell, carefully. After testing on my finger i put the Iris by making a small dot.

How to do the light reflex:I use pure white here, minimally thinned with water ,but that is only because all my colours are mostly dust, haha. I use a brush with a really good tip and dip it into white, but only the final end of the tip. Now hurry up to the eyes and bring it on, you ain't got time to waste if you don't want the dot to dry on your brush tip. Using mostly pure white for such small details means that it will pop out a lot and in my eyes this works well with such a small detail. For sure there is no need to set this point and often when you do you have to start all over again with your eye-work, but that's the way it is :)

III. Practical exercises 33 mm bustThis bust really has some nice eyes to work with and you can control the character of the sculpt a lot with your setting of the eyes. There is not really something new in the progress, i just want to show it to you so you might get a better feeling of what you can do when painting eyes on miniatures.I went the normal way like described at the advanced technique, but i did forget to make the first three photos, so here you go:

- Painting the area of the eyes black or very dark- Painting this area with white or very bright afterwards, taking care to leave a thin black line left

- Setting the Iris colour (i have used Hawk Tourqise here)- Brining a small highlight with ice blue to the Iris

- Setting the pupil with black or very dark- Setting a reflexation point with pure white

IV. Final Thought It ain't a easy task to paint eyes on miniatures and if you fail sometimes it is fine, that's normal. Simply give it another try - practice and patienceis everything.I hope this article helps you on your path and in the end we all shall see the light :)

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

I won't lose the fight against my camera and it took a while of googling and reading and taking practical exercises but tonight i've won the fight. I switched the latest photos of the Chinese Lady and the Cheng-Xiao-Chen with some i did in the last 2 hours... yeppa! I am happy with them, but they are not as good as those Raffa is able to do, but at least they are done with my own equipment that i finally did understand a bit more...

To avoid spam - here is a funny WIP from Wonderland Projects, very cool bust to paint, named "Mad Joe" size of my thumb i would say... still WIP:

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

This is a gtG, a gift to Guido :)

Helldorado, Immortal Magician, 28 mm

Finally i have finished those 2 miniatures from Helldorado, Cheng Xiao-Chen and Xian . First i had another base planned but i got stuck in it so it's kept simple to finish what i have started long ago. Again i am saying thanks to you Guido for your help a while ago and your patience in the last year :) - I hope you like it, even the photos are really making me sad - i stop trying to make photos with my own camera... bruaahhh!! I'll try to make some new photos next week again when i am at Raffa's ... bruaah! I'll promise to do better pictures... not a single clue why my camera sucks so much lately... guess i'll hit the reset button soon... damn! Bruaahh!

Guido, hope you are reading this - please drop me an email at jarhead(at)massivevoodoo(dot)com to have some further organisation planning :)

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Mmh... another boring Kong Fu rolling in. This time it is about television and radio, mostly the News issues, i am fine with music at all.

As i don't have a television since 8 years i can't really tell how it is when you got one at home. So i am talking about radio news, i guess you find the same issues in television too. I am not often listening to radio so i would say i am not always up to date on what is exactly happening in every corner of this planet, but news don't inform me with all this information, so there is no need for me to hope for it. Now, when i take my time to listen to radio music during my happy painting time i somehow feel very strange about the news items. Is there something happening in this world that is good? I mean, for example, not the rescue of someone who got lost while climbing some dangerous mountains, at least this is something good, but i mean something BIG. Is there hope for some chances to hear something really big about a good progress in humanity or something else?

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

I like big boobs and i can not lie... you other brothers can't deny...

Chinese Lady, Pegaso Models, 1:9

... i was just kidding at the beginning of this post.

I have tried to set a different focus on this 1:9 bust from Pegaso Models, instead of these enourmous breasts, which surely did irritate me time by time while painting, i have tried to set the focal points at the face, actual you can see those, haha. Whatever, my dad, a wise man told me that this is the spot on a woman where you can find her character and he also taught me that this is the place a gentleman looks first before he moves...

I had this lady under my brush for a long time period. In the end i am happy that she is finished to be finished. Sometimes it is good to walk on from one project to another to realize how much fun painting can be... even if there are still some areas where i could have spent more hours and days and weeks... Photos are again done with my own stuff, as Raffa is on a trip to an Electro Monkey bass boom boom Concert weekend. I am not really happy with the photos at all - maybe you get me why when looking at her in my cabinet:

Somehow something in between the both photos, as the one in my cabinet is done with lightning it is a bit too bright... nah, not talking about photos so much. I'll go use the time to throw some colours around :)

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Quick news out of the jungle. Finally the days are rolling in where i can switch the "Surprisé-Boxes" of the contest to content. Fat Thanks to our Partners. The packages are flying in these days - Wonderland Project Package arrived today...

One package is still missing so there will be an update soon. Now get your butt into one of these Hot Pants or boxers if you want to have the chance of winning one of these prices. We don't expect much entries, because everyone is so scared of showing his booty, so if you do there might be a BIG chance to win something.

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Music. I hope you readers out there are not bored? Anyhow, sometimes i got those days where i feel like a big grotzilla walking through a tiny city. It feels i can post and post and post and post and do things here and there and there and everywhere... today is such a day so i might be a bit annouying to some of you, but that is not a fact i spent a lot of thoughts, hey c'mon we are in the jungle and i can hear your heart beat, like a jungle drum...

So far from my painting music updates. I hope you like this selection. You can now find them all together sorted in my new personal playlist palace. May you have so much time for painting like i have. Good Music is the key for mostly every thought.

by Roman aka jar

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

We finally are able to announce the full list of prizes you might be able to win with your booty wrapped in Massive Voodoo Wear. You will find this prizelist linked to the Contest rules very soon after this posting.

Now to the intresting part - the prizes.
Muchas Gracias to our hobby friends that support us on this one. There won't be a first, second or third place - but 3 butts in boxers or hot pants which impresses the Ape gang's oppinion about creativity the most will win one of the main prizes - randomly choosen...

MAIN PRIZES

A big load of the latest issues of the GAMEFORCES waits in this package. The GAMEFORCES magazine is a high quality hobby magazin which brings you great articles of wonderful miniature work. The prize you recieve will contain many issues of the magazin in english language for you to enjoy. Thanks a lot to Mario for making this happen.

FIGONE is the new shop of Alan Carrasco, Jeremie Bonamant and their friends. Those guys really got talent, everything in their shop goes BOOM! BOOM! with my heart, like a jungle drum - Great stuff! They provide a surprise box for the Contest. Surprisé! Surprisé!

Florian Nampot started this project and delivers a nice range of characterful miniatures. It is a very fresh project but if Florian rocks on this way it soon will grow. He also offers a some of his brand new stuff which will contain the following miniatures:

Raffaele Picca's Weird Tiny Figures is also very young, like the guy himself, but he got kickass talent in everything he does. A small sortiment of his models are availabe at the moment but there is soon much more to come. He supports the contest with following miniatures:

So, i hope this rocks and maybe make you go ask your sister for her booty or present us your own - there is something in this hobby that you can call sexy, believe me or not, whatever your booty looks like, c'mon it is only a booty in clothes, where else can you win great miniature hobby stuff with that? :)

by Roman aka jar

I am totally stunned because of my painting friend from Italy, Andrea. WOOHHOOOWW!!
He really makes me soooooooo happy - i can't find a better word to write than WOOHHOOOWW!!

We both did a miniature exchange, Andrea( MXP over on CMON) gets my Cain and Abel Diorama which still waits here for him - i am too scared to sent it via post. So we have to meet up my friend when the time is ready :)

In return he gave to me his outstanding gift yesterday, a piece of art and skills and masterpiece and WOOHOOOWW!!!:Valhalla!

I am so thankful and i quickly asked Andrea that i want to paint something else for him than Cain and Abel, something that goes a bit more WOOHHHOOOWW!! but he is fine with my little scene. Andrea, in paint we trust and i am very, very thankful and i hope we both meet up soon to finally shake hands.

Uff...woooohhh... :)Best RegardsRoman

PS: Andrea also helps to translate Tutorials in italian + Marc is up to do it in french + Alba in spanish + myself in german! Wow, folks i am so thankful of your help! WOOHHHOOOWW!!

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Aloa.

After SkelettetS asked me over on CMON about this theme i thought about writing a little article to it. Here comes the question:

... so off to the question! after looking at you kickass Soul Guardian i thought i had to ask for some advice/recepie making snow, the more "advanced" way so to speak, as iv never done any snow effects before im a little scared to ruin lots of hard work. btw, here's the guy that's getting some!

hope you have some time to give me a hint or two and help out a poor newbie cheers!

MAKING SNOW THE ADVANCED WAYFirst i got to say that i have not made new photos about this theme as i am drowning in ideas and work these days, but i will explain it to you like a charging Mammoth, so i guess everyone might get what i mean.

First, check out this Tutorial about snow, that is basically my go to working with snow on miniature bases. Now with that knowledge we now try to make it a bit more advanced. These techniques are new to me too - let's try to make snow which looks more realistic and i'll also try to explain how to make such snowflakes:

First take a look on the snow at the ground. It is done like in the upper linked tutorial with one small difference. I did use a mix of matte varnish by Vallejo Model Air 71059 and water (~60/40) to spray it over the snow after i did put it on the base with PVC Glue, it should not be completly dried. This makes the snow look more realistic in my eyes, it looks a bit more wet and more fresh, like fallen just 2 hours ago. When you use your Airbrush system to get this mix up to the base make sure you do it with very small air pressure. If you do it with too much you blow away all of your snow material. Let it dry afterwards and it looks like this:

In these 3 examples above you can see some snowflakes on the miniatures or some kind of snow which remains on the back of a cloak from walking through a deeply snowed forest or being in the middle of a snow storm. I don't think the snowflakes are good for gaming miniatures as they are not perfectly stuck to the models, when touching while gaming you could easily destroy them. If you do a display piece it is fine in the end, at least i think you are touching your display pieces not that often and when you do you put your hands on the socket. Now it is really simply creating such snowflakes, but first have a look at them again...

To create such snowflakes take some of the matte Varnish by Vallejo Model Air Colour 71059 - maybe it works with others too, but i have no other here so i can't promise anything - and mix it with some water on a place you call your "mix-station-for-dirty-stuff". Take a tip of a brush from it, now with this wet brush get some of your Natron (= bicarbonate of soda or baking soda) up to the brush and you now see that it becomes something like wet snow. Now you can choose how small or big your snowflakes will be by splitting the pieces you got. Then put them on the place you wish for. The good part is, that the matte varnish keeps it in place, the bad part is that it is very fragile, so i would propose this only for the use on display miniatures.

That's it! Short tutorial but i hope helpful in the end!Keep on happy painting!

by Roman aka jar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Uff... i am completly brainless... need a new banana tree to hang around now.

The Tutorial Article Section of MASSIVE VOODOO now got a new interface, which i hope explains itself. Hard hours of brain work in html and tons of useful hints from my apes have been the reason that this section of the jungle is now easier for us to update. I will never do 70 banners again and clean up that html mess i first did in there, haha. Ahh, my brain hurts...

We hope it is also easier and nicer for you to navigate with the new banners. The new banners may look like this for example:

Thinner, more elegant and IMPORTANT with an additional information if this tutorial is available in other languages you might be searching for. Yet, there are not much translated, only the blood tutorial for now, but this will change by time in the future. Simply click on the article you like and now you can choose your language you like, if it is available.

I want to say BIG THANKS to Alba again for his help translating our articles into spanish (sorry that i did not response earlier, this really took my brain off).

Here is the new Area Introduction Text which guides you through to have a good start:

"Welcome to the Tutorial Section of MASSIVE VOODOO...Please take a minute to read the introduction for this area so you can have a happy time in here.

You may find tons of Articles about Miniature Painting, Sculpting and maybe other important hobby stuff in here written by the apes. They are arranged in categories to provide a simple navigation - for the categories we have used big banners, below them you find the articles. Those articles are linked via a banner that gives you a preview on what is behind it. Simply click the banner to get to the article you want to read. Important: We are working on translation of the articles to tender them in different languages. You will see a country flag in the article banner, if the article is already translated. Simply click the banner and choose your language afterwards. If you got some questions about something written in one of the articles simply post them via comment below the article. As soon we find the time we try to answer it.

I want to thank those great people who help us with the translation work - if you miss your language in here and want to help us, please feel free to contact Roman!

If you like what you can find here we would be happy about any kind of a

Now let's get it on with some miniature related blabla and roars out of the jungle. 70 unique articles (at the moment) are waiting for you to read them - Happy Painting!"

Let us know what you think about these changes. The article section needs your oppinion to improve. More tutorials to come in the future. Tell your buddies about it and bring them to swing their brushes!

by Raffa

as i read a post from a fellow painter in the german bemalforum i had the idea to post some grungy background pictures i often use when photographing my miniatures.

Before you blindly use these backgrounds, let me lose a word about the whole background thing.

Some suggestions i have for you:

Try not to always use the same background

Try to use a dark background, it's much easier to get the colors of the miniature right and nothing distracts from the miniature

Most of the time the classic "white to blue" gradient background doesn't hit the nail on the head... it's also pretty hard for the camera to get the lighting right.

White or Bright backgrounds tend to bounce color back onto the mini, while this isn't neccessarily a bad thing try avoiding bright colors in the background (such as blue) because then the bounced light is colored, you want to avoid blue light on your mini ;)

Try to find a background fitting to your miniature, a white background behind a khorne champions destroys a lot of atmosphere....

In the last time i used plain black construction paper (fotopapier for our german readers :) ) and found out it works best for me at the moment.

When a mini uses cold colors, maybe try a warm background for some contrast or use a background that fits your base.

Essentially just play around.... you'll find a background you like :)

Here are some of mine, you can modify, print, share and do whatever you like with it ;)

Search Massive Voodoo

FAST LINKS

Welcome to the Jungle...

... MASSIVE VOODOO’s jungle, where some apes share their thoughts and ideas around their beloved passion, the hobby of miniature painting and sculpting.

Feel welcome to come and check the jungle for tons of articles, interesting tutorials, creative competitions and the simple joy of happy painting hidden behind every tree. We hope that everyone finds their own banana in here, if not do not hesitate to ask the apes. We are more than happy for you to post in the comments section to help turn this jungle into the lush, overgrown painting corner we hope it will become.